Getting the offender to pay Donald Findlater Director of Research and Development The Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

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Presentation on theme: "Getting the offender to pay Donald Findlater Director of Research and Development The Lucy Faithfull Foundation."— Presentation transcript:

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Getting the offender to pay Donald Findlater Director of Research and Development The Lucy Faithfull Foundation

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Outline Overview of Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF) and Stop It Now! UK & Ireland Information on our experience of working with Internet offenders and their families Services developed for Internet offenders and their families by Stop It Now! and LFF

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The Stop It Now! Helpline The Stop it Now! Helpline began operation in June 2002 We have had a total of 16,240 calls to the helpline (up until December 2009) and 7,866 new callers

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Stop It Now! `Targets: – Adult abusers and potential abusers: to encourage them to recognise their behaviour as abusive and seek help to change. Family and friends: to encourage them to recognise the signs of abusive behaviour in those close to them and to seek advice about what action to take. Parents of young people with sexually worrying behaviour : to encourage them to recognise signs of abusive behaviour in their children and seek advice about what to do.

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Internet related calls to Stop it Now!

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Internet Related Calls

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Common problems for internet offenders and their families Bail timings (a few months to 2 years) – uncertainty and instability arising from this Offender being asked to leave the family home Offender losing job - financial implications Losing the family home Custody – partner left to manage family and disclose to others? Media interest (impact on family, especially children) Disclosure to children and extended family Acknowledging and dealing with ongoing risk

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Aims of Inform + To provide information to aid understanding of internet offending and accessing indecent images of children To encourage participants to explore their personal involvement with internet offending, in a supportive group setting To consider practical and realistic methods of self-management/control

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Frequently asked questions include: What kind of thing has my partner been looking at? Was he ‘lured’ in? Is he a paedophile? Does my husband / partner represent a danger to our own children? Will police / children’s services take my children away from me? Who needs to know? How do I tell my children? What is my legal position if I suspected/knew he offended and I did not tell the police? Is this my fault? How did I not know? Why did he look at these images? What is going to happen to him and our family? Is it ok if I still love them? Why am I being punished for something I did not do? What should I do?!

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Aims of INFORM To provide factual information about child pornography and the Internet To provide the means by which participants can better understand the process of Internet offending To examine risk associated with this behaviour To look at practical strategies for establishing and maintaining a culture of safer Internet use in future To provide a safe place for participants to discuss the impact on themselves and their families and make plans for their futures

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INFORM group content Session 4 – Family impact issues; risk management; moving forward; tools for safer Internet use in the future After 2 week break: Session 5 – Review of issues discussed on the programme; discussion of any outstanding issues; reflections on the course; endings and identification of future support

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Themes arising within INFORM Dominant theme: Why did he do it? What to do about the relationship? View of relationship viability tends to fluctuate markedly during the life of the programme and beyond Practicalities – impact issues for partner’s job; impact of Social Services involvement for children & wider family, financial, travel, etc… Disclosure – Fears of reprisals, ‘guilty by association’, impact upon social contacts